Iran has threatened to open a new front in the war and disrupt the all-important Bab al-Mandeb Strait trade route if the US invades Kharg Island.
After effectively shutting down the Strait of Hormuz and choking 20% of the world’s oil supply shipments, Tehran warned that the passageway connecting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden could be next if a US invasion occurs.
“If the enemy wants to take action on land in the Iranian islands or anywhere else in our lands or to inflict costs on Iran with naval movements in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sources told the Tasnim News Agency, “we will open other fronts for them as a surprise so that their action will not only be of no benefit to them but will also double their costs.”
“The Bab al-Mandab Strait is considered one of the world’s strategic straits, and Iran has both the will and the ability to create a completely credible threat against it,” the source added.
“Therefore, if the Americans want to think of a solution for the Strait of Hormuz with stupid measures, they should be careful not to add another strait to their problems and predicaments.”
The Bab al-Mandeb Strait is located southwest of Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthis are based.
The Houthi rebel group has warned they would assist in taking the 20-mile wide strait should the Iranian regime need help during its war with the US and Israel — a move that would hinder traffic through the Red Sea where $1 trillion worth of goods pass through each year.
The Iran proxy group has previously shown its ability to threaten the passageway during the war in Gaza, where the Houthis waged more than two years of attacks on Israeli-linked vessels traveling through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Attacks along the strait would further risk shipments coming out of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of oil, which has been redirecting its barrels through the Red Sea following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s threats come as the US is poised to send 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Infantry Division to the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
The troops would join the roughly 2,500 Marines deployed on three warships to the region as part of a broader effort to bolster forces near Iran and reopen the critically important Strait of Hormuz corridor.
While President Trump has not ruled out putting US boots on the ground in the region — either in Iran or on the strategically vital Kharg Island — he said he had no immediate plans to do so.
Kharg Island, located about 16 miles off the Iranian coast, is one-third the size of Manhattan and controls 90% of Iranian crude oil exports.
Taking control of the island would threaten Iran’s key source of income, with Tehran already suffering from soaring inflation and the diminishing value of its rial currency before the war began.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
